Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Diplomats: Full adhesion to the Pope and the Magisterium

"Full adhesion to the Pope and the Magisterium and a passion for the ecclesial community should characterize those who are formed by the Holy See's diplomatic service." stressed the Pope in his address to the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, yesterday.
Pray for our own Apostolic Nuncio is His Excellency Archbishop Faustino Sainz Muñoz who returned home to Spain a few weeks ago after a suffering a stroke. Apparently he is still confined to a wheelchair. Though I hope for his restoration to full health and his return to Wimbledon, it does seem the role of Nuncio in the Papal visit is pretty crucial. Perhaps the diplomatic "mishaps" that have surrounded the visit so far might not have happened if a younger man who is at the beginning of his career rather than an older one who is looking forward to well a deserved retirement were appointment as Ambassador to the Court of St James.

9 comments:

One might also suggest that there may be merit in appointing Nuncios whose viewpoint is at least slightly distinct from that of the local Episcopal Conference, if only as a check on excesses in any direction !

The Papal Nuncio was quoted as having approved the dropping of the prohibition on referrals for abortion from the ethics code of the Hospital of St John & St Elizabeth. I wrote to him asking whether he did or did not. He replied but failed to answer the question.

The sooner we have a new Papal Nuncio who does adhere to the teachings of the Church and publicly supports that teaching the better.

Fully agree with santoeusebio's comment above.Would just add that if the Nuncios around the worlde had been vigilent the Pope would not have had to make that address. It would have been superfluous for any Catholic.

JSAAny Catholic is free to leave the Church. Stalin did not allow Russians to leave Russia.With many millions killed or starved many Russians were even willing to help the Nazi invaders, so bad was the Soviet rule.Those who represent the Holy See diplomatically should not undermine the teaching of the Church. Some of Stalin's representatives accurately reflected the brutality of his rule.Does this help?

JSA: the difference is that this is a moral obligation. Seems fairly normal to me that a Catholic would actually be able to give that commitment, but if a person cannot do so, honesty might prompt them not to occupy a prominent position in a Catholic teaching institution, for example.

The Bishops' booklet on the Papal visit is now on line. I'm afraid I lost interest in it long before I reached the end. One phrase did however jump out at me - 'The Catholic Church does not claim to have all the answers.' I found this statement quite astonishing and wonder who this has been written for.

The booklet reads like a very bad corporate annual report cobbled together by disparate departments (mostly the UK civil service by its tenor)and bereft of any editing.

This is meant for the Catholic faithful? Or is it?

I've quoted in a previous thread this little gem but I hope Father will bear its repetition:

"The UK has worked closely with the Holy See to develop new ways to finance internationaldevelopment. The International Finance Facility - IFF -is a novel way to use the capital markets to front loaddevelopment spending."

Ubi Petrus, ibi ecclesia, et ubi ecclesia vita eterna

Pray for Francis our Pope, and for the Church of God

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